Snapper Picks

Shea Lopez on who to put on your Fantasy Surfer team for the Quik Pro at Snapper

Taj Burrow, proven to be a deadly draw at the first event of the year. Photo: Ellis

The waiting period for the Quik Pro Gold Coast starts tomorrow, so pick your Fantasy Surfer team now.

Taj BurrowMarket Price: $10,000,000
I’ve watched Taj surf Snapper enough to know you don’t mess with him out there. History has a tendency of repeating itself.

Filipe ToledoMarket Price: $7,000,000
With Filipe, it’s easy to make comparisons to a young Taj. For his competitors, this young Brazilian firecracker can blow up in their hand if they look away for a second. Nobody who draws Filipe at Snapper is safe.

Jordy SmithMarket Price: $10,500,000
The surf at Snapper rarely gets over the head-high threshold, which hinders Jordy’s ability to exert the full force of his facilities. In the past, however, proper equipment and some smart wave selection has still seen him squash lightweights like Taj and Felipe.

Dane ReynoldsMarket Price: $1,500,000
In previous attempts at Snapper, Dane has struggled with thin lips and soft shoulders. Like Jordy, his brash attacks benefit from more powerful waves. Despite needing a pulsing ocean to truly shine, I still put Dane on my team for Snapper. He’s far from a sure thing, but he’s a breath of fresh air for the sport whenever he touches the water.

Kolohe AndinoMarket Price: $4,500,000
Growing up at San Clemente’s high-performance cobblestone peaks, Kolohe is ideally suited to shine at Snapper. If he can find the confidence and focus to click into his higher gears against the world’s best, he’ll be mopping the floors with his victims.

Jadson AndreMarket Price: $4,000,000
Some surfers have a knack for reinvention. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jadson finds himself a big result in the near future because of the way he’s been training, focusing, and steadily improving over the last few years.

Julian WilsonMarket Price: $9,500,000
Quarters are a given, semis are likely, and a spot in the final could very well happen. But, oddly enough, a win seems out of the question for Julian. That is what I’ve observed from Julian so far at the World Tour level, and until he finds a way to carry his momentum from the start to the finish of an event, the top spots in the rankings will continue to be filled by the usual suspects.

Owen WrightMarket Price: $3,000,000
If Owen truly has his back straightened out, the only place he’s visiting now is going to be the top. It is with much anticipation that I regard his return to the water.

what was your final ranking last year?surfer mag, why dont you have last years winner do the pre-event picks? shea, 50:1 Kolohe doesnt make it past the first round. these are some horrible picks. taj for 10k? jordy for 10.5?

Kyle

Shea was leading fantasy surfer going into the Pipe event, think he still finished top 5 or 10. Out of 30,000. So yeah, I think he’s qualified.

Johnny Bee

Why Dane Reynolds? I thought you don’t get any points with a wildcard.

Tom

Dane is not is the running for a world title, but he can earn you valuable fantasy surfer points at a very low cost (1.5 mil)

Johnny Bee

Taken from the Fantasy Surfer rule book : “Zero points are given for surfers not ranking in the top 36 (if an event adds additional participants).”
I picked up Kalani Chapman at Pipe, and I got zero points.

BTV

Top 36 doesn’t mean One World ranking… it means one of the first 36 slots allocated on fantasy surfer at each event. Dane, and all other surfers in this contest will receive points. It only matters at Pipe where they added a bunch of other surfers, well passed the 36 allocated slots.

imakesurfbetsinvegas

your hopes are to high for the younger generation, shea. My trifecta is kelly, mick, and joel. top 3 for sure, but in no particular order. battled tested and proven vets. I got $100 that says bede durbidge does better than everyone is on shea’s list… holla back fools…

Rambo Estrada

If you picked those 3 in your team you’d need to make your other 5 the lowest guys on the price list to make it under budget. 3 of which would probably go head to head with Kelly, Mick and Joel straight away as they are the lowest seeds, so your team would be screwed in the early rounds.

imakesurfbetsinvegasessay

they are not even facing each other in early rounds (they could-operative word)… the only thing that matters is podium time anyhow… relax homie, i got this on lock ‘d’. you got a rack to throw down on this event? I Do! so show me the money

Rambo Estrada

I’m not sure which Fantasy Surfer you’re playing, but the one this article is about has Dane, Banting and Tiago in the same heats as your big 3 and if you were to have those 3 guys in your team, you’d only have enough budget to put these lowest guys in your team. You need the majority of your team to make it through the early rounds to get a decent score, not just 3 heavy hitters.

really think your counting Julian out to soon, I think this is going to be his year,and I cant wait to see how owen does, that’s the ?????? of the year.

shodda

As I read about the outlay for the ASP opener, I contemplate how the great Kirra has engrained our over time, through long shore currents, years of replinishing deteriorated sand banks, the idea of a better sandbar up to the point at Snapper and the juxtopositioned channel entrance making the water movement happier. Though I have not surfed there yet.
Ad valorem taxation for organizers closest to public parks meet assesed property vaues as a whole to shoreline access. If it were Kirra in fact when the tubes like vestibules or similar cloisters to shorelines that form the exact perimeters to pay the assesor accordingly. Does this actually happen contest time? Highly doubtful.
Its likely marijuana is becoming a taxable controlled substance that in turn could soon become an atypical cannabis pill because do-gooder people in general don’t like to smoke or run-in. The FDA certainly might agree as controlled substances such as a synthetic morphine used to ween a user of natural opiates and heroin.
Cellular level thinking makes privacy concerns publically challenging like humans threshold to metabolize vitamin C, there really isn’t any. ASP may take the concerns of the athletes who self prescribe recreational cannabis pills during contest time more lightly, as they are free thinking humans and this unlike the opium dens and renneissance of China would make the sports world more enlightened.

Phocas Surf

I love when Shea does these….

tony (ty) carson big island

I apologize, all this talk about whose is best, money and prices, and how much these so called pros can be bought for, dollar signs under their names, the whole ugly thing wants to make me vomit.

tony (ty) carson big island

“The surf industry, (pro surfing), is not surfing, my brief forays into the dark sickly heart of the matter have reminded me of that.” Lewis Samuels

Luiz Felix

New year same old problems. Judges just don’t get it. They just give it to CJ in heat # 11. How come one judge gives 6.1 and other 7.1? How can you trust this people?